Category Archives: Magic the Gathering

Magical Monday 4.27.15

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4x Monastery Swiftspear
2x Bloodsoaked Champion

4x Dragon Fodder
4x Hordeling Outburst
3x Brutal Hordechief
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
3x Mardu Strike Leader

4x Impact Tremors
1x Break Through the Line
3x Stoke the Flames

2x Foul-Tongue Shriek
4x Hero’s Downfall

1x Temple of Malice
3x Bloodfell Caves (should be Temples but could only find 1)
4x Bloodstained Mire
7x Mountain
6x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

 

Sideboard

2x Outpost Siege
4x Anger of the Gods
4x Thoughtseize
1x Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury
2x Stain the Mind
2x Break Through the Line

Welcome to Magical Monday, This is the list i ran this weekend for my LGS’s Alternate Art Ugin tournament. I was able to place second loosing to Abzan Agro in the finals due to me not knowing what Sorin’s +1 would do to my math. I didn’t realize that he gave +1/0 as well as lifelink and messed up my math by 2 points. Costing me a game i should have won and putting me on tilt for game two again costing me the game by having the fear of Sorin.

But lets focus on what we learned.

I only need 2 Break Throughs in the 75. They are good in the matchups where they are good but i never wanted three of them.

I think i need a 23rd land in the main, think i can cut a Mardu Strike Leader. They are almost Rmaster 5-6 but not quite.

I want to add 4 Lightning Berserkers to the 75 somewhere. Maybe cut a Bloodsoaked for 1 in the main and the Kolaghan, a Thoughtseize, and that extra Break Through the Line to make room for them.

Oh and i got caught with my pants down by a Searing Blood out of the mono red list, wonder if they would serve me better then the Stokes….

Impact Tremors and Foul-Tongue Shriek were huge every game i had one. Often just winning me the game straight up. I could see adding a Purphoros some where. I could also see going up to 4 Shriek but i am not sure what to cut.

Felt i was in the driver’s seat all weekend until that finals even with the round 1 loss. There is another event this weekend that i think i will attend, this one has a cash payout. And i plan to run it back i think as the deck is just a beating assuming no huge play errors on my part.

As always, feed back is welcome.

<3s

Magical Monday 4.20.15

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Welcome back, it was another busy one magic-wise for me this last weekend. My shop, The Arena, had our game day tournament and i actually got to play. I took a deck that i wanted to try and thought was a lot of fun but wasn’t a “good” deck. But i knew that going into the event. Ended up going 1 and 3 loosing to the winner of the tournament, the guy that took second and the wife who was not having fun and we were having a good time so i might have “let her win” game 2, then she just smashed my face game 3 super badly. Which i think made her smile a little bit. So it was worth it.

Sunday, was an away game vs Hays in our Store Vs Store series as is the norm i was on the draft team. While i feel good about the format i was unsure about the Hays guys and their draft style. My last two away games were not great for me going 2 and 2 i believe. Spoiler alert i drew my first round which is my normal play for winning out the rest of the matches. Which i did.

This is my deck….

2015-04-20 23.37.09

 

I know that some of the cards are hard to read so i will hit the highlights.

Qarsi High Priest, insane every time i had it other then the one game where it was my only guy for like 4 turns.

S Faithful, I had 2 of these guys and while i only main decked the first one; the second one was huge in many games.

P Familiar/J Sage, 2 drops that drew a card when they die are good. Go figure.

Hand of “the bad touch” Silumgar, 2 power deathtoucher? Yep, he went almost all the way one game before trading way up.

M Loremaster/Spell-Eater, these guys did a ton of work. One game i was able to trade while regrowing the Foul Renewal to regrow/kill a card advantage dude and another real threat.

Marang River Prowler/Skeleton, MVPs! Not kidding. These guys are real. And they carried a ton of weight. At one point i was Attacking with the prowler then sacking him to the high priest then replaying him for the value. So good!

O Interceptor x 2, 4/2 fliers. Yep, Good.

Write into Being, I want this card in constructed deck. It did everything for me this weekend. Hit morphs, found or buried lands as needed. Just an limited all star.

M Adept, just yep. There was one play where i was facing down a huge flyer and my opponent cast the rebound protection spell on it naming blue (my only flyer and this guy) but i had a Coat with Venom (another all-star) giving a morph flying and deathtouch and blowing out my opponent.

V Aven/ G Drowner, these guys just drew me so many cards it was insane. I only think there was one time the Drowner found anything other then great spell, land, land, land. The games where it found Foul Renewal i was unbeatable.

A Statue, I love this guy if i have any value guys OR if my opponent is on white/x. Pacifism, is a real spell in the format. This just eat it and rebuys the value while just making a super killer.

Coat with Venom, I think this is one of the best black commons. Top 5 for sure.

Mirror Mockery, Also super good. There were a lot of places where i could but it on their guy and “blue Pacifism” it. Which i did a few times. And there was as many times where i was just able to get value by cloning my Avens/Drowners.

Whisk Away/Flatten, good removal spells. There was an attack where the warrior agro deck attacked me with 5 or 6 2 or 3/2 and he had the warrior that made all his warriors require two blockers. I was able to flatten him after baiting him into an attack. Then i lined up all these complicated blocks opening myself up to taking like 10 damage (via the pump warrior). But the opponent decided to go for the big blow out with a butcher’s glee on my M Adept/V Aven block on his 3/2 first striker. Away with you nasty 6/2 first stikeing life linker.

Foul Renewal, my first pick another one of them all-stars. If you can get one and regrow it, do it!

Reach of Shadow x 2, 5 mana removal…. Still good in limited.

Sideboard super helpers Shambling Goblins x 2, i brought them in against the warrior deck and they were huge.

 

Well that was it, between the boy and myself we got 11 packs for 30$ and i picked up a lot of important points in the Store v Store scoring. I just need to keep it up.

 

Alright kids it took me an hour to type this up and i need to get to bed.

<3s

Monastery Mentor for Modern

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I have been asked for a deck list or two for Modern that is focused around the card Monastery Mentor. Guess some people have them, i don’t at the moment but i plan to get some. Personally, i just feel like they are amazing in all formats. The fact there there isn’t already a ton of modern lists online floating around is a testament to how focused everyone is on other formats.

My head goes right to a red/white token list with a heavy burn sub theme.

 

4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Monastery Mentor

4 Path to Exile
4 Lava Spike
4 Collateral Damage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boros Charm

You could go a little more control like me i like Mardu control.

4 Young Pyromancer
4 Dark Confidant
4 Monastery Mentor

4 Bitterblossom

4 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix

4 Lingering Souls

Even something a little more out of the box now that i have learned that one of my favorite cards “Disciple of the Vault” is legal. And attack from a few angles.

4 Memnite
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

4 Mishra’s Bauble
4 Conjurer’s Bauble
4 Chromatic Star
2 Krark-Clan Ironworks
2 Trading Post

3 Bitterblossom

If it was me i would lean more towards the first deck at least until i knew that people were main decking a lot of token hate and even then i might just start to main deck more cards like Intangible Virtue and other anthem effects that are one sided.

Okay need to bounce, food before spring fling over on the twitch channel.

<3s

Magical Monday 4.13.2015

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So to be clear i am starting this post before midnight my time so i am going to count it as Monday.

I love my job at The Arena, hands down best job ever. But sometimes there are surprises that well i didn’t foresee, hence the word “Surprise.” With the new PPTQ (preliminary pro tour qualifier) system all the local shops get to have their own little “big” tournament. I am hearing some PPTQ’s  are not firing and i am not just talking about in Smallville, Ks but real places like Boston and Chicago.

Say what?

Yep some shops just don’t have the player base to draw in the players, that and format calls. Hint, no one that has legacy decks just laying around wants to play a legacy PPTQ (of 8 people) to go to a standard regional PTQ. And the shop owners are losing money paying judge staff for 10 people to show up. Now some places are getting 100-200 people PPTQs and they are having another issue. There PTQ are too skilled. And a lot of those players are traveling to “soft” PTQs to make things easier to pick up invites. If you live in a smaller state, Magicwise anyway, you might get to see a lot of just off the train pros looking to get back on the train by crushing your dreams. How much fun would that be?

My personal problem? Glad you asked, the lack of level 2s in my area, and for those non Magic kids reading you have to have a level 2 judge for your PPTQ or your winner doesn’t get to qualify for your PTQ. Kansas only has a handful of level 2+s (four) and they are in high demand at the moment. Basically, making it a sellers market and some of the judges are looking out for number one; as they should. But at least let us know more then two weeks out would you? When we contacted you 3 months out and have been speaking with you weekly and then you say oh i am booked that day. Surprise!

I really don’t think that WotC thought this PPTQ thing out. There are a ton of issues that anyone could have seen in advance if someone gave it a reasonable amount of thought? High population area issues vs low population areas for number of seats to the big show and judge availability are just a few…

As for my problem, we are emailing the regional judge overseer person for our area, to see if there is anything he/she can do to help. But i am not holding my breath. I have the feeling that we will have to cancel and cut our losses. See if i can’t paint some lipstick on this pig and take it to the dance as my date. If only level 1s could run the PPTQs for low population areas. Areas with an expected turn out of less then 20-40 players. And heaven help us if the Regional PTQs gave out PT invites based on number of players in said state.

Sigh….

Well i hope someone at WotC, is watching what is happening and can make some changes to the policy.

Guess, i am starting judge studying soon. Not sure how fast i can get my level 2 but i know that i could almost make up the salary from my part job just working a few PPTQs a month. Seems like a reasonable thing to me.

Okay need to do some reading and try to get to sleep before 2 am this morning..

 

<3s

Magical Monday 3.23.2015

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Welcome back to Magical Monday, hope you had a good pre-release weekend. I spent mine working, ill and winning. I was able to go 4-0-1 at the Arena, I ran our Midnight event so Johny could play. I probably should have bailed as i was starting to feel ill and i am sure staying up all night was the nail in my coffin. As it was i got home a little before 5am and managed to get 4 to 5 ish hours of sleep before i woke up with not able to stay in bed any longer. That tends to happen to me when i am sick, i don’t have the energy to do anything but i can’t just lay in bed.

Around noon, the clan heads to the shop and i open a fairly solid pool, guess i should add i played a controlish Mardu deck. I will try and put up a pic of my final list build but i don’t have the cards handy at the moment. We had enough people to go 5 rounds and i knew that with the way my head was i would be hard pressed to do well.

First round was against my son, who had a solid pool also but i was able to play the control deck. Clearly i won, mostly do to a lot of his guys being Exploit guys and he had a hard time keeping guys around to Exploit with all my removal.

Round 2, was verse the kid(Lucas) that bet the wife round 1. She told me she lost to a Dash deck so i had an idea of what i was against. But lost game 1 due to him just being fast on the beat down and stumbling on mana. I had a lot of 5 mana guys in hand. i brought in what turned out to be my anti Dash package that included 2 Mind Rot and a few low costing cost dorks as speed bumps. I faced a lot of Dash decks on Saturday and anytime i drew a Rot or two the games felt very easy to win.

Round 3, was against another Dash deck (Robert), but i was able to stabilize in game 1 and win a close one. Game 2 was a heart breaker. I kept a 3 white spell with Swamps and Mountains hand vs his mull to 6 with 1 land. I was too far ahead by the time he was able to really develop and i had removal spells in hand waiting for a target. I dislike games like that but my mana issues were to come later.

Round 4, was vs John. John and i are old friends, it was he and another friend that took my game up a notch and together the three of us traveled to play magic. But Chad passed away, John took it hard and focused on school, without them to push me i fell to “rotation sucks” and took a break from the game. But John is back post College grad looking for a “real” job and is back in town until he lands on his feet. Catching up he thought i had left town, when really i fell into DDo…. So round 4, game one was a long one. He was on a green/white list with real fatties. I was able to make a go of it until i punted on a bad attack. Going for a 2 for 1 by attacking with a face down Sandstorm Charger in to his 2 man team i had a  Elite Scaleguard in play had i unmorphed first i would have blown him out forcing a chump block as it was thought i was stable until he ripped a fatty and i missed on removal or a bolster effect to win the game.  Game 2 i brought in my bomb vs grindy match ups, Hedonist’s Trove. Haymaker after haymaker was thrown until was were both had a stable board and 1 card each, But mine was a tutored up Trove thanks to Sidisi eating a random dork. Time was called just after he passed i was turn 0 untapping with Trove. I drew 3 that turn, my own card, his forest and his Segmented Krotiq, attack for a lot. He untaps and plays a pacifism. I draw my Elite Scaleguard play his Ainok Survivalist facedown unmorph eat his pacifism play the land i drew last turn and my Scaleguard allowing me to tap one of guys on my attack for lethal. Super fun game. Giving me a draw vs a win do to my punt.

Round 5, was another good one going deep but my removal was just better then Dan’s guys and i was able to stabilize thanks to a Champion of Arashin and a Echoes of the Kin Tree. I got to rebuy my Champion a couple of times thanks to Kolaghan’s Command and my card advantage was just too much.

Overall the pre-release was a blast. Sure i could hardly move and the room was blistering hot or freezing cold from moment to moment but i think that was on me not the shop. There were some cards that were real standouts i want to just list.

Foul-Tongue Shriek – much better then it looks on paper. This kind of reach is nasty in fast decks.
Impact Tremors – Same as above. This is a card i want to build around now something fierce.
Enduring Victory –  is a beating. Know this card is out there. It was the final nail in my coffin that first game vs John.
Echoes of the Kin Tree –  is one of the cards you want in a long game.
Hedonist’s Trove –  Not all rares are good and not all good rares are good all the time. In the right matchups this is gold!
I will try and write a few times this week. Lots of lists in my head and i want to share my sealed from this weekend and the wife’s. I think her pool was a much harder build and want to see if there was a better list for her to run.

<3s

Magical Tuesday 3.3.15

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Welcome back. Looks like it is our favorite time of the year once again, spoiler season. Think that most of you out there don’t need any help finding sweet spoilers and brewing, but that is what i am here for right?

So far there is one card that stands out from the pack for me, Stratus Dancer.

I am drawn to this card i think because of a pet deck idea i have had for a while now. The Trail of Secret Plans deck that i have written about a few times now. Here is a link to the last time i wrote about the idea. 

But i never put the deck together. Even though more then 1 person has asked that i do so and see how it playes. Why not try it? There was a lack of pure power, but this card. This card is powerful. This is just the kind of thing that the all morph all the time deck needs to be competitive. A morph that just puts people on the back foot with the question do i need to play around that 2/2?????

I think i like adding white to add Abzan charm and maybe the white free morph in the sideboard for the red decks… But that feels too slow to really battle them.

Speaking of red beat down feels real good in today’s meta at least in my local meta anyway. Red 1 drops followed up with hording outburst seems super strong right now.  There are 2 win a boxes this month. Might have to try something new and try to take one of them down.

 

Well i need to save and get this out not to be another day late.

<3s

 

Magic Monday 2.23.2015

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Welcome all.

Have you heard about the Tiny Leader format? It seems to be taking Kansas by storm. Seems like all the shops around here has started to support this new format. It seems cool to me, all the perks of commander or EDH as us old guys might call it, with out a lot of the BS that i don’t love of the older format.

I have been working on some lists or at least conceptual ideas that i might form in to actual decks. And i want to share one with you all today. So many years ago i was just ending one of my long breaks from Magic and i was getting back in to Magic and one of my favorite sets just hit, Mirrodin.

Disciple + Ravager and a ton of disposable income artifacts often destroyed people in the way back.

So if we have a ton of cheep artifacts and artifact men like Arcbound Work, Steel Wall, and some older guys like Phyrexian Walker, Shifting Wall. Fun draw card spells like the different baubles, Chromatic Star/Sphere/Terrarion just for the hell of it. But if you start down the path of free or super cheep spells wouldn’t it be nice to do some thing like add a storm element? Grapeshot or Brain Freeze action could worked in with ease. Add in Ashnod’s Altar, Culling the weak, Dark ritual along side Cloud of Faeries/Frantic Search to fuel draw X spells and you might have a real mill sub-theme going on here. Just don’t forget your Glimpse the Unthinkable!  Adding in blue is worth wild any way as there are some great little monsters to help with this theme, like Master of Etherium, Tidehollow Strix Skill Borrower, Trinket Mage and Sygg, River Cutthroat and you are real close to your 32 ish non land cards.

I don’t know how well it will work yet. But i will be trying to put this thing together in the coming weeks. When i get it finished and get a few games under my belt i will let you know how it goes.

Well once again i ended up taking longer to look up and insuring that i spelled all the card names right and it is Tuesday…. Oh well i am not changing the name now.

 

<3s.

Magical Tuesday (Because i was sick) 2.17.2015

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Welcome to this edition of Magical Monday Tuesday, i was under the weather yesterday and my head was screaming. But lets talk about magic.

This weekend was solid one for the Gurobo family. The wife took down the FNM draft with a sweet mono black deck. The shop was drafting M15 btw, a format that i really think is a fun draft format with a lot of different decks available to good drafters. Remmie, the son, drafted a sweet deck as dropping a match to blue fliers a theme that will run through weekend.

Saturday, was Fate Reforged Gameday. I had planed to use the artifact agro deck but Remmie decided that he wanted to use it so i moved over to the red/white burn list i have been playing/writing about for a while now. And the wife took the temur deck i have been working on for her.

Thankfully there were enough people that we didn’t have to face off right away, in fact the wife and boy didn’t have to play each other until the simi-finials, where the wife took the boy down and proceeded to take down the tournament.

Sunday was our Store Vs Store match with Midnight Games in Hutchinson, an event that had slipped my mind until Saturday. Groan…. I was already starting to notice that bug that took me down Monday. But we pushed on. Wish the wife would have came along, her hot streak might have carried over for one more event as it was we got rolled instead.

I ended up drafting a 2-2-0 deck, either taking a fast 2 games or a punishing game 3. But i think my deck was build wrong until the third match were i cut a land for a 6 mana spell. I had the mardu agro deck and i thought i would win with my curve just being super low and attacking as often as possible, but 17 lands and 3 4 casting costing spells was just not enough power for when the game went long. And drawing the 5th land plus was a death-nail. But cutting a land and adding in the red uncommon dragon gave me some possible end game. But really all it did was get countered one game but it did clear the counter out for my red siege which i decided is amazing.

So other then getting sick and some family drama it was a really fun weekend of family magic fun.

So lets look at something new, this is a list i have taken right off TCGplayer.com and i think it is fairly good. I don’t love the sideboard but other then that i really think i would enjoy this thing.

4 Chromanticore
2 Pharika, God of Affliction
4 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
2 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
4 Soulflayer
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Torrent Elemental
Creatures [26]
4 Commune with the Gods
3 Hero’s Downfall
2 Murderous Cut
1 Sultai Charm
Spells [10]
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Forest
1 Island
2 Mana Confluence
1 Mountain
4 Opulent Palace
1 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Windswept Heath
1 Yavimaya Coast
Lands [24]
Deck Total [60]

3 Bile Blight
2 Crux of Fate
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Sultai Charm
3 Thoughtseize
1 Torrent Elemental
2 Treasure Cruise
Sideboard [15]

Thoughts?

<3s